TOPICS
TOPICS
GS Major New Students Orientation for Fall Semester 2021 was held!
Congratulations! The Global Studies Major welcomed 36 new students in September 2021.
"New Students Orientation" was held on September 15th.
In the opening, Dean Ritsuko Kawamura gave a few words of welcome. Online and face-to-face guidance on course registration was held, and important documents regarding the four years at Ritsumeikan were handed out. At the university, students are required to select their classes. The pupils listened attentively to the lecture on subject areas, number of credits, and course registration.
Introductory Seminar Class meeting was held on September 21, which is a small group class for new students. The students were divided into two classes and gained the chance to get to know the instructor, Oritor-dan and their classmates.
The course registration QA session was held on September 22. Senior students belonging to Oritor-dan, an organization that supports new students, provided counselling to new students. The senior students shared their experiences with the new students, such as "which classes should I take as a first-year student" and "how to balance study and a part-time job".
Due to the current coronavirus pandemic, many students have not yet been able to enter the country. We hope that everyone will be able to come to Kyoto as soon as possible.
Graduation and Commencement Ceremonies held
The Commencement
Ceremony of the Faculty of International Relations for the Spring Semester of
the 2021 Academic Year were held at the Osaka Ibaraki Campus on September 23.
38 students from the College of International Relations and 32 students from the Graduate College of International Relations graduated/completed their studies.
The ceremony was also streamed live to graduates, their families, and current students who were unable to attend.
Congratulations to all graduates!
Best regards,
IR Office Closing (2021 Aug 7 - 2021 Aug-16)
IR Office will be closed from 2021 Aug 7 to 2021 Aug-16.
Thank you so much for your understanding.
During Summer Break（Aug.2-Sept.24）,office will be opened as follows
Weekdays ： 1：00pm - 5：00pm (Offiec will be closed at 28th)
The Commencement Ceremony in Spring Semester AY 2021
GSG Event Day
On July 3, the College of International Relations held on Kinugasa Campus the "Global Simulation Gaming (GSG)" event in a hybrid format combining in-person and online participation, taken by second and 3rd-year students* as a regular course.
GSG is a course in which students take on the role of International Organizations, States, NGOs, Corporations and experience international relations through policymaking, international conferences, and negotiations.
(*) Basically, the course is for 2nd-year students. However, GSG was closed in AY 2020 due to the spread of the COVID-19; it is why this academic year, the course was exceptionally offered jointly for second and 3rd-year students.
This year, the theme was [International Poverty Provision and Sustainability Development].
From April to June, each team of students planned their strategies and prepared for the GSG event day. In addition to the "Security Council" and the "UN General Assembly” simulation, poverty-related project meetings and NGO outreach have been held. Students learned about international relations through the agreements and negotiations process.
According to the student's surveys, there were comments such as,
“As an actor, I was able to achieve not only the tourism-related plans and goals I had set in advance, but also other aspects such as education, environment, study abroad programs, and human rights.”
“By studying together with GS and IR majors, I feel that I was able to improve my negotiation skills in a language that is not my mother tongue. Also, the presence of people of different nationalities brought diversity to the way of thinking, and it was nice to have a sense of realism as if it were an actual international negotiation.”
The College of International Relations will continue to enhance its educational programs and promote interaction among students while paying close attention to infection control.
Report on the guest lecture (Lecturer in Japanese History, UEA: Sherzod Muminov)
This lecture provides an analysis of the crucial period in the lead-up to the Korean War based on archives in Russian and English. It analyzes the superpower rivalry and how it shaped the post-World War II Japan and greater East Asia. By scrutinizing the competing visions for the new order based on primary sources, the lecture provides insights into the upheavals in which postwar Japanese nation-state and society were forged. The lecture also uses the guest speaker’s own research as a case study to shed light on the origins and course of the Cold War confrontation and its impact on the postwar Japanese society.
The students were heavily engaged, and we had so many comments and questions we easily filled the allotted time. The contents made the students think about the Korean War and Earl Postwar period in North East Asia in new and innovative ways. This proved an excellent introduction to the topic of the seminar this time: ‘the international history of the Korean War’